“My most-revered caporegime.....my most-trusted friend.”

—Don Jirebon Trapani^[src]

Hyram Darden (born 4,013 BBY) was an Amrellian Human male mobster who served as a caporegime, or captain, in the Trapani Crime Family. He served as a commander of men and manager of finances under the criminal organization's founder, Don Jirebon Trapani, loyally for over four decades, eventually becoming one of the most notorious criminals in the galaxy for his time, according to later historians.

Born in 4,013 BBY in A-City on the world of Anon, Darden lived modestly with his impoverished family during the Mid-Rim Depression. During his teenage years, Darden found and later convinced his family to adopt an orphan Myron Seter, whom Darden quickly became best friends with. As a means of going from rags to riches, the two began a life of crime, recruiting Jirebon Trapani after joining and beginning to work under Don Nikola Georg of the Georg Crime Family. They successfully conducted several smuggling runs for Georg, earning a sizable profit. However, the three soon killed Georg after they discovered he was an undercover informant for the Anon Police Force. After a brief war with the Georg Family, in which Darden killed Don Georg's son and successor, Sven Nikola Georg, Trapani founded the Trapani Crime Family and named Darden as one of his two caporegimes.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Rise to prominence 1.3 Legacy 2 Personality and traits 3 Talents and abilities 4 Behind the scenes 5 Appearances 6 Notes and references

BiographyEdit

Early lifeEdit

Hyram Darden was born in 4,013 BBY on the planet Anon within the Old Anon neighborhood of A-City during the Mid Rim Depression. Because of tough economic times, Darden and his parents lived in relative poverty. Their home consisted of a small wooden house with only two rooms: a main room with a kitchen and a separate bedroom. Though he came from humble beginnings, Darden dreamed big, aspiring to become the owner of the largest company in the galaxy and one of the richest people to ever live. His parents tried to urge him to become a worker in a local airspeeder factory, but Darden refused to do such grueling physical labor for such little pay. Instead, he focused on his education, and was often chastised by the children in his neighborhood for being "a holobook nerd." His focus paid off, however, and achieved academic scores that were well above average for his age and level. Because of this, he was accepted into a private school where he received better instruction and free health care for his family, which the school provided for all of its students.

In 4,001 BBY, when he was twelve, Darden was walking home from school and encountered a boy the same age as him. Named Myron Seter, the boy told Darden he was parent-less and living in a run-down orphanage. Darden began to talk to the boy every day on his way home, and the two grew to become best friends. After several months, he convinced his parents to legally adopt Seter. Upon living together, Darden discovered that he and Seter were polar opposites: Darden was more academically gifted than physically skilled, and Seter was more physically dominating than intelligent. Even though they were so unalike, the two remained close friends and worked to help Darden's family earn a living. Despite their help, Darden's parents could not afford to care for themselves and two children. Two years later, they were no longer able to pay their small house's rent and were forced to move out on the streets. Realizing his delusions of grandeur of becoming a rich businessman were to never become true, Darden decided he was going to do whatever was necessary to ensure his family's survival. He and Seter began working for Don Nikola Georg, the mobster who led the Georg Crime Family within the Human Mafia.

With Darden's wits and Seter's physical capacity, the two became successful selling spice to older students at Darden's public school and around the Old Anon neighborhood. For over a year, Darden and Seter sold spice and did Don Georg's bidding. They also stole and resold airspeeders, jewelery, fuel, and expensive clothing. In 3,998 BBY, while in the middle of a drug deal, a spice-addict pulled a blaster pistol on Darden and demanded his goods and money. Darden complied, giving the man everything valuable he had and taking no action as the mugger ran off with his things. After calling Seter to accompany him, Darden reported the mugging to Don Georg, who berated Darden for allowing the man to escape with such a large quantity of valuable spice. He ordered Darden to either hunt down the thief and reclaim the stolen goods or to repay the Don for the lost wages. Unable to repay Georg, Darden set out with Seter and began to track the thief down. When they found him, he was in the process of injecting the spice into his arm via syringe. Seter used his brute strength to strangle the man to death while Darden collected the stolen spice and his money. Although horrified that he had just assisted in the killing of a man, Darden accepted it and refused to allow it to bother him. He then returned the spice to Don Georg and thanked Seter for his help.

Rise to prominenceEdit

“Let's get this done smoothly, eh?”

—Darden to Seter and Trapani on their first smuggling run^[src]

The following year, Don Georg placed Darden and Seter in charge of making monthly spice shipments via airspeeder from Old Anon to the Little Corellia neighborhood. Not wanting to fail the crime lord, they decided on bringing in another person to help them with their smuggling runs. Their eyes fell on sixteen year-old Jirebon Trapani, a student at Darden's school who was from their neighborhood and shared their Amrellian heritage, something that they both highly valued. Trapani's family, like theirs, was impoverished and in need of financial rescue. While Trapani was on his way home from school one day, they approached him and offered him the job of "watching [their] backs" while they made the smuggling run. Although at first hesitant, Trapani decided to trust his two fellow Amrellians and agreed to help. After a couple days of making preparations, the three picked up the airspeeder containing the shipment and piloted it through a police checkpoint, where officers being bribed and extorted by Don Georg were stationed and allowed them to pass without checking their cargo's contents. The trio continued on, successfully making it to the drop-off point. However, the pair of men that were to pick up the shipment had not yet arrived, forcing them to remain with the shipment longer than expected. Through the dense fog, Trapani spotted the silhouette of a man circling around the airspeeder. Darden, Seter, and Trapani then exited the airspeeder and went to investigate the threat. Through the fog, Darden heard Trapani cut the throat of an armed man, later revealed to be a member of a local swoop gang. Seter then blindly stumbled across another gang member, shooting and killing him. After several tense minutes of waiting, the trio was relieved of their duty when two of Georg's men came to pick up the shipment.^[1]

Although dangerous, the smuggling runs proved to be very profitable for the three young Amrellians. They completed several more—eventually more frequently than just on a monthly basis—and earned enough money to provide their families with food and rent money. After a little under a year of working for Georg, Trapani came to Darden and Seter claiming that Georg was an undercover Anon Police Force informant. Although they at first refused to believe him, Trapani showed them proof: a holotape of Georg talking to a police detective that he had acquired from his own source. Enraged that he had been deceived, Darden supported Trapani when the latter proposed that the three of them kill Georg and extract revenge. Darden and Trapani planned the assassination, which Seter carried out. With Georg eliminated, the three earned a significant amount of notoriety within the criminal underworld.^[1]

Eventually, Darden and Seter discovered that Trapani was, in Darden's words, "a better leader." Darden praised Trapani's skills in manipulation and his calmness, compassion, and foresight into the minds of their enemies. Darden and Seter, choosing to be humble, decided to allow Trapani to be the unofficial leader of the group. By 3,990 BBY, Trapani had founded Trapani Imports & Exports, which he used as a front for his illegal rackets, and named Darden the chief executive officer of the company.^[1]

After meeting with a man claiming to be constantly threatened by Don Sven Nikola Georg, the new head of the Georg Crime Family and the original Don Georg's son, Trapani, Darden, and Seter agreed to eliminate the entire Georg family once and for all so that they could further expand their own operations. Days later, they launched a first-strike on the Georg Family by killing the new Don Georg in an ambush. After several weeks of fighting, Jirebon and his men emerged victorious and the Georg Family was permanently destroyed. With all opposition eliminated, Trapani met with the Commission of the Human Mafia and requested permission to create an official Mafia crime family. The Commission accepted his request, and he founded the Trapani Crime Family. He asked Darden and Seter to serve as his caporegimes, who accepted, and recruited Tatius Karna to serve as the family's lawyer and consigliere, or adviser.^[1]

Together, the four men gathered a band of enforcers, informants, corrupt officials, and other associates. With no opposition, the group eventually expanded and gained control over the entire Anon system and established various fronts and rackets for spice smuggling and distribution, illegal gambling, weapon smuggling, prostitution rings, and even owned some legal businesses, such as hotels and casinos. Within a year, the Trapani Family was recognized by HoloNet News and other groups and individuals as "one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the Mid Rim systems."^[1]

LegacyEdit

Sometime prior to 3,956 BBY, Darden died and passed on his title of caporegime to a successor. Although he had trained Aldous Boldan to succeed him, it was unknown if Boldan actually ever became caporegime. Darden's funeral was attended by hundreds of Dons, made men, and other mobsters. At the time of his death, he was greatly respected among the galaxy's criminal underworld, having earned a reputation for being a brilliant war-time tactician and business strategist.

In 28 BBY, on its list of the Top 100 Most Powerful Criminals in Galactic History, the HoloNet News listed Darden as #3 (tied with Seter), calling him "a brilliant crime lord." By the time of the Galactic Civil War, Darden and the Trapani Family were credited with transforming the Human Mafia into a dominant galactic underworld power for over four decades and forever changing the concept of organized crime.

Personality and traitsEdit

Darden was, unlike many professional criminals, considered to be a very kind and compassionate person. Despite being a gifted strategist and tactician both in peacetime and in times of war, he was often criticized by other members of the Human Mafia for being too kind to be considered a "real criminal" and, because of this, Darden was disrespected and not feared by rival crime families, unlike his "violent counterpart," Myron Seter, who was dreaded on the streets. Darden perfected taking the more diplomatic, peaceful route whenever possible, and did his best to avoid violence and to deescalate potentially hostile situations. When Seter asked him why he was "so soft," Darden replied by saying that he felt violence could only "bring about the destruction of life," and therefore "nobody wins." Often, when people not involved with the Mafia needed a favor, they approached Darden and not Seter, as the believed him to be more understanding and caring.

Despite his compassionate, peaceful personality, Darden was a caporegime (captain) for one of the most notorious crime families in the Human Mafia. Don Jirebon Trapani admired in Darden what he called potential ruthlessness, focus, and tactical skills, meaning that, although generally calm and benevolent, Darden had the capability to turn violent and hostile if betrayed or insulted. In times of war for the Trapani Family, Don Trapani considered Darden his most revered commander and strategist, and Darden displayed his ruthlessness numerous times, capable of ordering the deaths of many enemies with no hesitation or mercy.

Though he kept it hidden from almost everyone he knew, Darden was homosexual, and was involved in a romantic relationship with a man he met at a cantina near The Strip on Romin. He kept this fact a secret as most Amrellians considered being homosexual a sin. Though he managed to keep his sexual orientation a secret, Cher, Don Trapani's wife, hinted to him that she knew.

Talents and abilitiesEdit

Darden was considered by many to be a gifted strategist and tactician. His prowess in organization, strategic skills, and tactical abilities were displayed on many occasions throughout his life. Using careful planning and tactics, he successfully defeated the Felip Family in a bloody year-long war and took undisputed control of the planet Romin. Like his Don, Jirebon Trapani, and the Trapanis' consigliere, Tatius Karna, very seldom did Darden actually conduct any assassinations, attacks, or assaults personally. He acted as a commander—a revered one—and earned the nickname "the General" for his prowess in tactics and strategy. Darden also displayed his cleverness by rooting out certain traitors within the Trapani Family ranks.

Another ability of Darden's that he used to his advantage was his calmness and ability to see the actions of others from a non-personal, strictly business, standpoint, even if said actions were violent and committed against him. At times, his calm attitude would infuriate the much more easily-angered Myron Seter, who would berate Darden for his "softness."

More legitimately, Darden was known for his skills in business administration and management. Don Trapani trusted Darden to run Trapani Imports & Exports Co. and to take care of the crime lord's front. While their criminal activities earned them the bulk of their income, Darden went above the Don's orders of just "[keeping] the company going" and turned it into one of the most successful cargo freighting companies in the galaxy. By 3,987 BBY, it went on to have a profit of over two million credits a year.

Behind the scenesEdit

The character of Hyram Darden, created by author Dalton Wylind, was first introduced in the the first chapter of Glorior, a novel set within the Force Legend Series, and his character was greatly expanded upon in most of the subsequent chapters. Much of his personality was inspired by the character Henry Tommasino from the 2010 video game Mafia II, from whom he takes his likeness. Darden was also inspired by Vito Corleone and Michael Corleone from Mario Puzo's The Godfather and Jimmy Conway in the film Goodfellas.

In creating Darden, author Dalton Wylind sought to forge a character who was a "good, bad guy." Wylind designed Darden's character simultaneously with the character Myron Seter. In many ways, the two fictional characters are polar opposites: Darden is very cool, collected, and tactical, while Seter is hot-headed, brutish, and violent. However, the two characters are best friends in the novel, and often display friendly affection for one another despite their differences. Wylind aimed to create two characters as a means of showing the power and sacredness of being of Amrellian decent in the Old Anon neighborhood and to show that, in that time and place, nothing else mattered to the people who lived there. The characters were also made so unalike to give the novel's protagonist, Jirebon Trapani, a "tough time" whenever trying to make Trapani Family leadership decisions, as Darden constantly urges him to take the diplomatic, peaceful route while Seter prefers the violent, straightforward approach to problems.

Unlike the other main characters in the novel, Wylind chose to have Darden's personality remain relatively secretive. Very little is revealed about his personal life until the middle of the novel, when it is revealed that Darden is actually a closeted homosexual, unable to disclose his sexual orientation due to his culture's strict anti-gay society.

AppearancesEdit

• Glorior (First appearance)
• Force Legend I: Convictions (Mentioned only)

Caporegime of the Trapani Crime Family (with Myron Seter)
None[1] ← 3,990[1]–3,988 BBY[2] Himself[2] →
Caporegime of the Trapani Crime Family
Himself (with Myron Seter)[1] ← 3,988 BBY[2]— Unknown →
Chief Executive Officer of Trapani Imports & Exports Co.
None[1] ← 3,990 BBY[1]— Unknown →

Notes and referencesEdit